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8 December 2016

New approaches needed for young adults with diabetes

New approaches in delivering care to young adults with type 1 diabetes are needed, according to researchers in Galway. A multi-disciplinary research team from NUI Galway and Galway University Hospitals have carried out a systematic review of international literature which has been published in the journal Diabetic Medicine.
The research, funded by the Health Research Board, highlighted a lack of high-quality, well-designed interventions, aimed at improving health outcomes for people aged 15-30 living with diabetes. This age group often experience poor outcomes because of issues with self-management skills, psychosocial distress, clinic attendance, adherence with treatment recommendations and high-risk behaviours.
Professor Seán Dinneen, HSE National Clinical Programme Lead for Diabetes, School of Medicine, NUI Galway and Consultant Physician, Galway University Hospitals, led the research. “Living with type 1 diabetes is demanding whatever your age. People need to adhere to a daily schedule of self-management by self-administering insulin several times a day for their entire life and monitor its effects through frequent (and often painful) self-monitoring of blood glucose levels. With young adults, there are so many pressure and life changes at this stage in their lives, that what works for an older adult simply does not work as well for them.”
Ireland has no diabetes registry making it difficult to know how many people are living with type 1 diabetes and how many of these have are young adults. The research group are now working to develop a new intervention for young adults, including a patient and public involvement panel of eight young adults living with the condition to co-design the research together.
25-year old Liam McMorrow is a young adult living type 1 diabetes, and was a collaborator on the study, and a member of the Steering Group. “It’s great to see researchers recognising the issues facing young adults living with type 1 diabetes are different to those faced by children or older adults living with type 1 diabetes. I think this is increasingly important as young adults may be most receptive to new interventions, for examples digital health interventions compared to other age groups. This study also highlights a lack of research in the area and demonstrates a clear need for further research to focus on this population. I’m excited to see the results from the ongoing work of the D1 now study in Galway.”
The importance of the systematic review has already been acknowledged at national and international conferences, the lead research of the review, Mary Clare O’Hara, won best poster at the 8th West of Ireland Integrated Diabetes Care Conference in 2015 and was awarded an oral presentation at the 51st European Association for the Study of Diabetes Scientific Meeting, a meeting that attracts about 16,000 delegates.
For more information on this study please contact MaryClare.OHara@hse.ie or 091 542840.
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New Technology to Scale-up Student Volunteering at NUI Galway

National Launch of StudentVolunteer.ie
Every year in Ireland thousands of students from our universities and institutes of technology carry out over 100,000 hours of volunteering. Ten third level colleges have now joined forces to develop studentvolunteer.ie - a brand new online resource which matches students’ interests with volunteering opportunities. The portal is the first of its kind globally and aims to enhance students’ awareness of their role and responsibility in solving challenges such as homelessness, social exclusion and our ageing population.
“What I have found most rewarding about volunteering here in Galway is the sense of community which comes from getting to know a variety of people from different walks of life within the city. I certainly feel that I have more of a stake within this community, and not just a fleeting interest as part of student volunteering programme. The experience which I have gained from volunteering with the SVP has really put a more tangible or practical lens on all of the theoretical academic study which I have done as part of my degree”, said Aidan Harte, MA in Public Advocacy & Activism, NUI Galway.
Potential users include up to 100,847 (HEA 2015) students across all higher education institutions and up to 8,000 registered Civil Society Organisations. For charities such as Barnardos, Habitat for Humanity, TeenLine and Special Olympics Ireland, student volunteering is a vital component of their ongoing work:
“With over 3,000 registered volunteers under 25 years old, Special Olympics Ireland depend on the student volunteers among our younger supporters to assist with our fundraising activities and sustain our programmes through working in our clubs, helping at events and participating in committees at local and regional level,” said Claire O'Connor, Volunteer Services Manager, Special Olympics Ireland.
Shortlisted for the 2016 THINKTECH awards, studentvolunteer.ie has been developed under the umbrella of the Campus Engage Network based at the Irish Universities Association. There are currently 10 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) invested in the portal: UCD, NUI Galway, IT Tralee, UL, MU, Trinity, IT Tallaght, DCU, UCC and DIT. The online system is open to ALL Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), private colleges, VECs, etc.
Students can browse and apply for volunteering opportunities nationally or internationally; manage their profile and volunteering activity online; track volunteering hours; gain recognition and apply for volunteering awards.
The civic role and responsibility of colleges and their graduates is becoming a central issue in the global education discussion, with increasing pressure on institutions to demonstrate how higher education is adding value to society.
“By effectively using technology to make volunteering easier, Campus Engage is helping universities and institutes of technology to scale up this socially impactful enterprise,” said Kate Morris, National Coordinator, Campus Engage, Irish Universities Association.
The value of volunteering is recognised by the United Nations who have designated December 5th as International Volunteer Day (IVD).
Volunteering has numerous benefits for students and for society. Ireland’s new National Skills Strategy 2025 focuses on graduate attributes such as high level cognitive, leadership, entrepreneurial, analytical and interpersonal skills. Volunteering is an excellent outlet for students to test, refine and put these skills into action. These skills are very much valued by employers:
“In an increasingly competitive employment market, when I review CV’s the selflessness of a volunteer can stand out like a beacon in a sea of self-interest. The functional expertise that a volunteer can learn in an organisation, offers a head start compared to others who start at the beginning when entering permanent employment for the first time,” said Billy Norman, Customer Account Manager in Unilever.
“I volunteered in a youth cafe ran by Galway Autistic Partnership (GAP). The youth cafe provides an outlet for kids and young teenagers with autism to socialise with one another by interacting through technology and various games and activities. Autism is something I had no previous experience of and so attending the club was an education in itself. The experience was invaluable to me as an Occupational Therapy student and it was very relevant to my future line of work,” said Louise Ryan, student, NUI Galway.
Evidence shows that getting out and volunteering can improve individual mental health and well-being. Volunteering is also an excellent pathway for international students in Ireland to integrate into their communities and make new friends. Higher education institutions across the country are battling student retention. Getting involved in extracurricular activity on and off campus is proven to keep students in college. International volunteering cultivates core graduate attributes such as cultural awareness, languages and increased understanding of global social responsibility.
“I was a literacy support mentor with the Claddagh National School, Galway for 8 weeks. As a student of English, I found it encouraging knowing that my help had a positive influence on a child's confidence in reading. The literacy support programme has a huge impact on developing the reading and communications skills of Primary School children and university students get a chance to act as responsible mentors and apply their knowledge through helping young children with their work,” said Princess Okonkwo, student, NUI Galway.
Higher education institutions are now acknowledging students’ volunteering achievements on their academic transcripts or diploma supplements. Participating colleges are beginning to use studentvolunteer.ie to track their students’ volunteer hours so they can recognise their efforts at the end of the college year in Awards ceremonies such as NUI Galway’s Presidential Award for Volunteering - the ALIVE Certificate.
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Three-minute presentation on more accessible and affordable cancer screening wins first prize at Threesis

Bárbara Oliveira won first prize at NUI Galway’s third annual Threesis Competition which took place last week. The winner was judged on how well they conveyed and communicated their research to a general audience. A PhD student at NUI Galway, Bárbara’s presentation was on using microwave breast imaging to enable more accessible and affordable cancer screening.
The competition consisted of quick-fire presentations, with NUI Galway researchers presenting three slides, in three minutes, to three judges. The competitors had come through a series of heats already held on campus, to take on the final challenge at a public event in An Taibhdhearc.
Earlier in the month, Bárbara came second in a similar national competition, Theesis-in-3, where she also won the audience vote award.
Second and third prize on the night in An Taibhdhearc went to Dilip Thomas and Grace O’Malley. Dilip works on regenerating blood vessels in vascular diseases, whilst Grace researches new immune based drugs to fight tumours.
Threesis focused on taking researchers out of their comfort zones to present their research to a general audience using only three slides over three minutes to three judges. The spotlight was on impact - how research at NUI Galway impacts upon our daily lives, those of our family and our broader community.
Speaking at the event, Dr Ann Ryan, Head of Research Development at NUI Galway, congratulated all the researchers who participated in the competition: “This evening’s presentations showed not only the breadth and quality of the research being undertaken across NUI Galway, but also its relevance and impact on all of our daily lives; this is truly impressive.”
Research areas represented included science, engineering, information technology, business and medicine, with topics ranging from new methods for repairing damaged tissue, to data visualization and crisis data management, making Irish cattle more efficient, new drugs for diabetes, and centering the person at the core of dementia care.
The three judges were: Professor Daniel Carey, Director of the Moore Institute, NUI Galway; Bernard Kirk, Director of Galway Education Centre; and Lorna Farren, Director of Communications and Marketing, NUI Galway. Professor Andy Shearer, Head of the School of Physics, NUI Galway, was Master of Ceremonies for the event.
Other finalists at the event were: Heike Vornhage (Insight); Rachel Ronan (CÚRAM and Anatomy); Ihab Salawdeh (Insight); Declan O'Loughlin (Engineering); Gillian Murphy (CÚRAM); Niamh Hennelly (Economics); Aniket Kshirsagar (CÚRAM); Marc Higgins (Biochemistry and Teagasc); Luís Martins (CÚRAM) and Enrico Bagnoli (CÚRAM).
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